This recipe for banana pecan cake stemmed from a well-loved recipe on the New York Times.

Following recipes has never been my style—I’m guess many of you are the same way. I like to have an outline, but then I go from there: Frosting? Hmm, too much sugar for an afternoon snack for me. Will this work with a gluten-free flour blend? Let’s give it a shot. Ingredient by ingredient I swap in and swap out. This is how I like to navigate a kitchen, and I find, when I follow my gut, I like the output more.

Everyone has unique tastes and preferences. It’s for that reason that I hope everyone will do some tweaking and twisting while they prep their dinners. It’s for their own good! There have been countless times when I followed a recipe to a “T” and later regretted it, wishing I had swerved in a different direction.

Baking (more of a science) provides less wiggle room for adjustments, though you can still make changes if you know your ingredients well. An easy personalization here would be to swap pecans for walnuts, or leave out the nuts all together. I know that nuts are an extremely divisive ingredient in banana bread … the original NYTimes version does not call for them, however since I skipped the frosting, I wanted to add something that would give this cake a second dimension. No regrets.

The line between bread and cake is blurry, especially when it comes to sweet breads, like banana bread. It is really bread? You can call it what you want — I’m calling this one a cake, though, it’s a cake I would (and do) eat for breakfast.

South Boulder Peak is mountain just outside of Boulder that tops out at 8,549 feet above sea level. Compared to the range of Rockies behind it, it's a baby peak, but it's a peak nonetheless. On Thanksgiving Day we started up it's trail around noon, after a light breakfast. Getting our bodies moving before a really big meal is sort of our thing.

It was two hours to the summit and two hours down, the descent rocky and slow. By the time we were an hour from the car, it was three, and our light breakfast wore thin. "I could eat a vat of jell-o," Oliver said, though he's not a fan of jell-o, and shortly there after, "Let's make Cornish Hens." That's when I piped in about stuffing. Stuffing!! It's the secret star of the show, right? Stuffing, boxed or homemade, is what everyone goes back to get more of.

We made it to the car, and that evening we dined like royalty on my mom's cooking. We had salmon and two types of cheese, fresh salad, and even pie. It wasn't meant to be a traditional Thanksgiving dinner, just an evening with family. (That's what it's about anyhow, right?)

Still, that stuffing craving lived on. It wasn't four days later and I was in the kitchen, stuffing Cornish Hens with cornbread dressing.

When I sat down to write this post, I toyed with the fact that Thanksgiving has already passed, and that it's likely no one in the world is looking for a cornbread stuffing recipe anymore. I thought to myself: But stuffing could be eaten at Christmas (or whatever other winter holiday) right? And yea, the answer is you can eat stuffing whenever you please. It’s great at Christmas (some may even make this a tradition) but also delicious on any old Sunday. The leftovers make for a pretty happy desk lunch, or even breakfast.

This recipe calls for gluten-free cornbread. I share a link to my go-to gluten-free cornbread recipe below. I asked a crowd of you on Instagram Stories if I should make this recipe grain-free before sharing, but most of you love stuffing as much as I do, and said to share it now! You get me.

This stuffing is pretty simple, but the addition of fresh cranberries gives it a tart burst of flavor and a hint of red color, and toasted pecans add extra crunch.

For those of you who are looking to make this grain-free, I would encourage you to experiment with using a grain-free (almond flour based) cornbread in this recipe. Report back on how it works! I'll be running my own experiments. A long time ago, I also shared a meat-based stuffing here.

Directions:

Sauté the diced onion and celery with the butter in a skillet over medium-high heat, stirring occasionally, until the onions are translucent. Then, scrape onion and celery into a mixing bowl.

Dice cornbread into 1/2-inch or 1-inch cubes, and add to mixing bowl. Then, add cranberries, pecans, and sage. Season with salt & pepper.

In a separate bowl, whisk the egg and broth together until combined. Then, pour the broth mixture into the cornbread mixture. Use a spatula to fold the cornbread mixture until all of the ingredients are equally distributed and the broth is well incorporated.

Scrape stuffing into prepared baking dish, patting down into an even layer. Bake for 30 minutes, or until stuffing is golden on top. Allow to cool 5 minutes and then serve warm.

Cinnamon, nutmeg, and ginger. These are just a few of the things that warm my soul. Gingerbread has always been one of my holiday favorites because of how cozy it is — in flavor and scent.

I have been waking up early since our trip to the Red River Gorge — it took me over a week to acclimate from the time change. So, with extra time to kill, an a frosty morning out my window, I jumped on the holiday baking train! First I made a french press, and then I pulled out all the spices, attempting to muffle any sounds as I open and closed cupboards.

How does the poem go? Not a creature was stirring, not even a mouse. At that wee hour of the morning, I worked quietly so as not to disturb a anyone. Just me, my whisk, and the preheating oven, working together while the rest of the neighborhood lay silent.

Whiffs of molasses and ginger rose from the oven, waking everyone up before the muffins were even finished baking. While they were still hot, we smeared them with butter and sipped our coffee, as if it were Saturday, before hurrying off to work to meet the real world.

These muffins, delicate and soft, but full of warmth, made it feel like Christmas morning, even in early November. You'll know the feeling when you make these muffins, or these crispy cookies, raw bites, or even this off-beat pumpkin pie. Gingerbread brings a smile to your face.

Add half of the dry mixture to the wet, and stir. Then add remaining dry mixture, and continue to stir until a loose batter forms and few to no clumps remain. Divide batter among muffin liners, filling each about 5/6 of the way full. Top each muffin with a whole pecan.

Bake for 25-35 minutes, or until a toothpick, when inserted into the middle of a muffin, comes out clean. Allow to cool 10 minutes before serving. Store in air tight container in fridge for up to 1 week.

Foraged Dish

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Hello! I'm Caitlin, and Foraged Dish is a food blog that focuses on using real ingredients to make dishes that wow you with flavor. Here you'll find my latest recipes and photos. Visit the About page to learn more, and happy browsing!